


And It All Fell Away

by callboxkat



Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [1]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Avatar & Benders Setting, Alternate Universe - War, AtLA AU, Bad Things Happen Bingo, Earthbender Patton, Firebender Janus, Gen, Major Character Injury, Memory Loss, Minor Character Death, Nonbender Virgil, Patton gets a little bump on the head, Tumblr Prompt, Virgil is Concerned, War, and Janus is just trying to leave, it's probably fine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2020-08-01
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:28:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25641340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/callboxkat/pseuds/callboxkat
Summary: Two years ago, Patton and his best friend, Virgil, were drafted to fight for the Earth Kingdom in the war against the Fire Nation invasion. Patton has never been much of a fighter, but he'll do what he can to save his people.However, when Patton gets hurt and he and Virgil are separated from the rest of their army, Virgil just might have to look to one of their enemy to save Patton's life.
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Deceit | Janus Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Deceit | Janus Sanders & Morality | Patton Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Morality | Patton Sanders, Deceit | Janus Sanders & Morality | Patton Sanders, Platonic Moxceit, Platonic Moxiety - Relationship, platonic Moceit, platonic anxceit
Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1858819
Comments: 7
Kudos: 49





	And It All Fell Away

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the prompt “Memory Loss”.

Patton generally tried to avoid fighting. If he were asked, he would probably describe himself as a pacifist.

This was _not_ a trait that lent itself well to his current situation, as an Earth Kingdom soldier on the front lines of the fight against the Fire Nation invasion.

He did his best to only fight when he absolutely had to, and when he did, to only push back the soldiers, and not to kill them. If what he did do led to the soldiers being killed by someone else, well, he tried not to let that keep him up too late at night.

He _had_ killed before, but not because he wanted to. Rather, it was because his options were to take someone out, or to be killed himself. Or if one of his fellow soldiers was about to be killed. Patton might have been a pacifist, but he wasn’t disloyal.

Perhaps a pacifist was not the ideal soldier to have on the front lines, but an earthbender was. And Patton was one of the best earthbenders in his village, and the people in charge of selecting villagers to draft knew it. Patton wasn’t going to brag about his skills, even if the only “reward” he’d gotten for them _hadn’t_ been being sent to participate in a war he wanted no part of. The bar for earthbending skill wasn’t very high, given how small his village was and how few earthbenders were among them. The village was so small, in fact, that there was only one other soldier in his unit from the same one.

(There was only one _left_ anyway. But that was another thing Patton tried not to think about.)

That other soldier from his village was a young man named Virgil. He was a nonbender, but his skill with his pair of dao swords was considerable.

And he was Patton’s best friend in the world.

For the past two years since they had been drafted and sent to the front lines, Virgil and Patton had been side by side, part of the Earth Kingdom army tasked with fighting back the Fire Nation as they razed forests and invaded towns, destroying everything in their wake and taking prisoners by the dozens.

Patton was not looking forward to when one or both of them was inevitably captured, or worse.

Today, another battle was raging, in the mountains of the north-western Earth Kingdom.

It… wasn’t going the best it could have. The fighting had dragged on into the night, but they could still see perfectly, thanks to the flames raging all around. Plumes of fire shot into the sky, sporadically illuminating the battlefield in harsh relief.

Patton could only be glad that the Fire Nation hadn’t been able to bring any of their infamous trebuchets this far inland, through the mountains. Still, Patton thought as he batted out the flames on one of his sleeves, this was far from an easy battle.

Patton raised a wall of stone and pushed it towards the approaching enemy soldiers, shoving them back the way they had come. Licks of retaliatory flame curled over the top of the wall, which began to groan and crack from the heat.

Sweat dripped down Patton’s face. Not for the first time, he wished his uniform were lighter. They were pretty far north, yes; but it was summer; and they were fighting _firebenders_.

Virgil stood at his side, panting, his swords half raised. He looked towards Patton and gave a terse nod in appreciation for his efforts. The light from the dancing flames only made the coal dust he smeared around his eyes look even more dramatic.

Intimidation won half the battle, Virgil claimed. If the Fire Nation was going to wear skull masks and spikes, he was going to be just as terrifying. He wore pretty much the same green uniform as any other nonbending member of the Earth Kingdom army; that was true; but Patton had seen many Fire Nation soldiers come up short when they got close enough to see his eyes. And that small hesitation was all the opportunity Virgil ever needed.

A loud thud sounded, and cracks and fissures began to form in the wall Patton had created. He clenched his hands into fists, solidifying it again, but another blow came, and fire surged over its top, and Patton had to step back to avoid being burned. The wall finally crumbled as his concentration broke. Cheers sounded.

Patton gritted his teeth, focused on the earth between himself and the rapidly approaching Fire Nation soldiers, and lifted his arms. The earth shifted, slanting under his control.

“Patton!”

Patton jerked, a shudder going through the earth he was currently bending into a slide to send the nearest Fire Nation soldiers sprawling. He turned, and Virgil was lunging, and Patton barely had the time to feel alarmed before he saw the man, saw the large, spiked weapon coming straight for his face.

Patton ducked, meaning to punch the man in the weak point in his armor, to slow him down—but he wasn’t fast enough.

Not nearly fast enough.

…

Virgil let out a guttural shriek and brought his swords slashing down, but he was too late the stop the weapon that struck Patton’s helmet hard enough to leave a crater. His friend pinwheeled back, the earth he had been bending cracking apart as he lost control of it. Patton fell, but the cracks didn’t stop. All of the other nearby soldiers, nonbenders like Virgil, as bad luck would have it, were quick to back up. Virgil only ran closer, desperately trying to get to his friend.

The earth beneath his feet was falling apart, and Virgil knew it was about to give way completely. He leaped over the fallen Fire Nation soldier, landing hard on the shifting rock. His hand closed on Patton’s limp wrist, and he hefted Patton up in his arms just as the whole section of the mountain really began to move.

He knew he wouldn’t get away in time. So he just squeezed his eyes shut and held on to his friend as the rock broke free and crumbled right off the side of the mountain.

For a moment, he was in freefall.

He landed, his feet slamming painfully into the ground despite how he attempted to absorb the impact. Something hit his shoulder as he fell forward, sending a blinding spike of pain through his body. Virgil shrieked again, but the cry was buried in the sound of the rock and debris falling all around them. Virgil rolled on top of Patton, only able to hope that he and his friend wouldn’t be crushed.

And then, suddenly, it was quiet. All he could hear was his own harsh breathing and the distant sounds of battle.

Virgil groaned, shoving a broken tree branch off of himself. He sat up, sending the stones on top of him rolling, and winced at… well, his entire body, as he looked around. They appeared to be at the bottom of a ravine. The trees here were practically unburned—so far, at least—but he could see broken branches in some of the trees where stray rocks or other projectiles must have hit, and the smell of ash and burning was still strong.

The Fire Nation soldier had fallen with them. He lay face down about twenty feet away, sprawled awkwardly on the ground, only partially covered by the plants and stones where he had landed. He wasn’t moving. Not that Virgil had expected him to.

Virgil turned away.

They were safe enough for the moment, he decided. And if a boulder was going to come flying at him, there wouldn’t be much he could do about it, anyway.

He looked down at Patton.

His friend was unconscious—but he was alive, Virgil noted with dizzying relief, as he pressed his fingers to his neck. His helmet was askew, his uniform as torn and dirtied as Virgil’s own. Virgil shoved away more bits of earth and broken branches and gently patted down his friend, searching for any more wounds, but he didn’t find anything. Probably some impressive bruises, like Virgil was sure he would have, and a few shallow cuts from hitting the trees and sharper stones, but no worse.

Virgil carefully removed Patton’s helmet. He winced at the large welt on his temple.

“F*ck, Pat,” he murmured. His fingers hovered over the wound for a second before he withdrew his hand.

He looked around, hoping for any sign of the rest of his army. Patton needed _help_. Virgil couldn’t bend them back up the mountain, and there was no way he was going to be able to carry his friend all the way there on his own. Especially with his arm in the shape it was in.

He’d have to wait until either Patton woke up, or help arrived. And he’d have to hope that no one else got to them first.

Virgil looked around for his swords. He had dropped them, but he was pretty sure they had fallen with them. Sure enough, he spotted one about ten feet away, half-buried in rubble, and once he gathered that one up, he spotted the other, pinned under a chunk of rock. A few determined shoves with his good shoulder freed the weapon, which turned out to be badly dented.

Better a dented weapon than no weapon, Virgil thought. He picked up the sword.

He dragged over a few bits of undergrowth to better hide himself and his friend, shifted Patton into what he hoped was a more comfortable position, and crouched down there to wait.

…

Janus missed home.

He missed his people. He missed his aunt’s carefully tended garden; he missed crispy fire flakes at cultural festivals; he missed the chameleon-cats who hung out in the alleyways around the market; he missed the beautiful landscape of his homeland, unlike anywhere else on the planet. He missed a time when he still believed that his country was doing the right thing, trying to share their greatness and prosperity with the world. He missed his mother, who he would never see again, and he missed his sisters, who were probably still in school, still learning about how wonderful their country was and how they should be proud of their brother for taking part in the war.

Proud of a brother who had had no choice in the matter.

Punishments for crime were stiff in the Fire Nation, and they were always looking for new soldiers. Sixteen was old enough to enlist, and therefore sixteen was old enough to be drafted.

Seventeen was, Janus had decided, old enough to desert.

He had had enough. Enough of fighting, enough of watching people he hardly even had time to get to know be cut down in front of him, sometimes by the very flames his own people had started. Always by the very war that his own people had started nearly a century before.

He’d had enough of burning the world. Of going to see beautiful and unique places, and either assimilating them into the Fire Nation, or destroying them completely. And those were the battles they _won_.

When they didn’t win, well. Janus could name many souls whose absence served as a reminder as vivid as the scars on his body.

He’d had enough of creating orphans, of burning the world, of all of it.

He was _done_.

Once he had made his decision, he gathered what he needed to make his desertion a success. Maps of the Earth Kingdom, collected from the messenger on behalf of the Fire Nation army and simply never passed on (their loss was easily blamed on an unknown interception), extra supplies for his med kit (from soldiers who wouldn’t need them anymore, before they could be properly redistributed), food (under the guise that he was just a hungry growing boy, a reminder that made the cooks just uncomfortable and sympathetic enough to give in, despite rules for strict rationing for low-level soldiers). Water was plentiful in this part of the Earth Kingdom, and he could worry about that potential need later. He didn’t take anything that he couldn’t conceal within his armor.

Then, all he had to do was wait for an opportunity. The next battle, he decided, when his disappearance would be easily mistaken for something more fatal and less treasonous.

He slipped away during the thick of the battle, as everyone else was busy burning and killing and dying. He found a riderless Komodo-rhino in a stroke of unexpected luck—he was ignoring how it likely got that way—and took it with him, making his way down the mountain. His disappearance was lost in the chaos; and soon enough, he found himself in a ravine, away from the battle but not foolish to think he was out of danger yet.

It was night, the soon-to-be burned forest lit by the glow of orange flames that were distant for now, but not nearly distant enough. Harsh shadows stretched across the landscape, providing plenty of hiding places for enemies or for former allies who might recognize his desertion for what it was.

Janus slid off of the Komodo-rhino’s back now that he was on fairly level ground, deciding that the added height from sitting atop it only made him easier to spot. Plus, were he found, he could more easily dodge and attack from the ground, rather than trying to maneuver from atop a gigantic beast.

Janus and the Komodo-rhino walked through the forest, the crashes of rock and roar of flames growing more distant, but not nearly distant enough to allow the tension to leave the firebender’s body. Occasionally, burnt leaves would flutter down to the forest floor, and Janus would silently extinguish them. Harder to ignore were the stones or boulders that tumbled down, clear products of the earthbenders among the enemy’s— _former_ enemy’s—ranks.

He slowed his pace, spotting something in the brush, on the edge of one of these recent unnatural rockfalls. It was a human shape, sprawled awkwardly on the ground. It was a harsh reminder that earth was not the only thing that could end up cast to the bottom of a ravine.

Janus knew a corpse when he saw one, even at this distance. There was nothing he could do for the man. He kept walking.

Seconds later, a very human sound stopped Janus in his tracks. He looked around, hands raised to defend himself. For a fraction of a second he thought maybe, maybe, he’d been mistaken, and the corpse he had found hadn’t been a corpse at all. But the sound had come from the wrong direction. No, this was something else. He couldn’t see anything out of place up ahead, but that didn’t mean much in this shadowy landscape.

Was it possible that he had imagined the sound? He _was_ rather on edge. Perhaps he was simply being paranoid.

For now, he decided to just keep going, and to keep an eye out.

That was exactly when the underbrush exploded, and a shadow swung a pair of dented swords at his face.

…

A Fire Nation soldier stood in the middle of the ravine, in full battle armor, lit by the orange glow of the flames from the battle that raged at the top of the mountain.

Virgil swore quietly when he saw the all-too-familiar shape, gathering Patton closer to himself.

The enemy soldier walked nearer, and out of the shadows came the beast he led by a thick rope. A Komodo-rhino, Virgil recognized, the favored steed of the nation of colonizers and conquerors.

(They also supposedly made a decent sausage, not that that mattered, or that Virgil would ever try it.)

Virgil drew his swords, waiting, quiet, hoping he wouldn’t need them. One of the weapons had been badly dented in their fall, and Virgil could feel a growing wetness on his left arm, even if the pain hadn’t quite set in yet. The soldier kept walking, occasionally glancing up towards the battle. That made sense, Virgil thought. If he was sneaking around to take down someone important on the Earth Kingdom’s side, or to just die in a literal blaze of “glory” and bring honor to his family, he wouldn’t want to be spotted. And, reasonably, he assumed that he would be alone in this ravine.

The soldier slowed his pace. Virgil’s grip tightened on his swords, until he realized that the man had just spotted the body of the soldier who had attacked Patton. The soldier looked at it for a moment, and then resumed his former pace. Virgil didn’t allow himself to relax, though. They weren’t in the clear yet.

The soldier was almost gone, they were almost safe, when Patton groaned. Virgil tried not to be annoyed with him.

The soldier stopped, and his Komodo-rhino grunted, pawing at the earth. He looked around, putting up his hands and shifting into a wider stance. He had a skull-like faceplate, a clear indication that this man wasn’t just a soldier. He was a firebender.

Virgil wasn’t about to wait to be flushed out. He jumped out of his hiding place and lunged, bringing down his swords.

Only to be blocked by one of those metal-clad arms and sent flying back. But the man fell, knocked off balance by the attack. Virgil rolled as he landed and ran back towards him, raising those swords again.

“Stop!” the soldier commanded.

“What, you think that’ll work?” Virgil said, ducking a fire blast—which seemed strangely small, although it was probably just the angle, or an incompetent firebender—and sweeping the soldier’s feet from under him. Virgil cried out at the way the move jarred his injured arm. He turned the sound into a roar of rage.

The soldier went down with a heavy _thump_ , his metal armor crashing with him. But he wasn’t done: he was already getting back to his feet and turning to face Virgil, his skull-like faceplate as empty and expressionless as they all were. His gloves steamed as he settled into a fighting stance. Virgil took a step back.

And lunged again.

Virgil wasn’t a bender like Patton or this enemy soldier, but he was determined. He wouldn’t let himself be killed. Not by one of the people who was helping all the other ash-makers to take over and systematically destroy the entire world, and not while Patton was injured and _needed his help_.

…

Metal armor was good for more than just being incredibly heavy and overheating in the summer heat, Janus was rudely reminded as he shoved the Earth Kingdom soldier back yet again.

He was trying to hold back, trying not to kill the guy—that was the whole point of this, to finally _stop killing—_ but he was going to defend himself.

…He didn’t need to hold back much, actually. This guy was really good.

…

“Shut up and die already!”

The words forced their way into his murky mind, dragging him up from a hazy darkness. He scrunched up his face, disoriented and confused. Pain throbbed through his skull.

He opened his eyes, and the first thing he saw was _fire_.

Fire, bright orange and yellow and red, flaring in the darkness.

He was too shocked to make a sound, only able to gape, unable to even move away.

Somehow, the fire disappeared as soon as it came, dissipating into sparks.

He shrank back, expecting more flames, but none came. Instead, he heard voices, arguing.

He slowly looked up, struggling in an attempt to sit upright even though his body didn’t seem to want to cooperate; and he saw two figures standing nearby. They were clearly in the middle of a fight. One of them had swords drawn! And the other had a scary skull mask!

He didn’t know who they were, but he knew he didn’t want them to fight. What if they hurt each other? Or _worse?_ No, no. He couldn’t let that happen. He had to stop them.

As he watched, trying to get his body to remember how to get up, the man with the swords lunged, and the other man barely avoided being decapitated. The skull man retaliated with a burst of flame that singed the sword man’s robes, shouting something about enemies. The sword man didn’t seem to care.

He managed to sit up, and everything was spinning, but he couldn’t let these people kill each other. “Please stop,” he said desperately. His voice came out as a hoarse croak.

As quiet as his voice was, the others must have heard him. The man with the swords turned, and his mouth dropped open.

The man’s eyes were like black pits bored into his skull.

He shuddered.

The man with the skull face and the fire looked like he was debating taking a shot at the man with the swords while he was distracted, but he didn’t.

“Patton,” the man with the swords said, abandoning his fight and coming closer. “Patton, are you okay?”

Patton?

Was he Patton?

He thought for a second. His head hurt a lot, and he couldn’t concentrate very well, but that sounded right.

Was this man his friend? Patton tried to smile at him. Would that get him to stop fighting?

Apparently, it would. The man with the swords dropped his weapons, ran over, and fell to his knees at Patton’s side. He reached up, looking at Patton’s eyes and at a spot on his head. The other man hovered nearby.

“Is he okay?” the man with the skull face asked. “That’s a big bump on his head.”

Patton frowned and put a hand up to his head, wanting to know what he was talking about. The man who used to have swords went to stop him, but not before Patton had touched the painful lump on his head. He gasped, and a fresh wave of dizziness washed over him.

…

Janus hung back as the Earth Kingdom soldier went to check on his injured companion.

“Is he okay?” he asked hesitantly, watching the man hover around his friend, apparently not knowing what to do. “That’s a big bump on his head.” And it was bleeding. A little. And while it was hard to tell in this lighting, Janus was pretty sure the soldier’s pupils were two different sizes. That was… not great.

The soldier turned back and glared at him. “He’s fine. No thanks to you ash-makers.”

The injured soldier—Patton, Janus remembered—swayed where he sat. Janus thought of the med kit he had brought, and took a hesitant step closer.

Only to instantly have a sword pointed at his throat. The non-dented sword, he noticed. He slowly put up his hands.

“My mom was a doctor of sorts,” he offered. “She worked on injuries like that. Accidents in the mine back home. I picked up a few things.”

Patton chose that moment to pass out again, falling to hang limply in his friend’s arms. The other soldier gasped, then bit his lip, looking conflicted. Janus could tell the moment he made his decision.

He turned to his should-be enemy and fixed him with a hard look. Janus had to admit it was pretty intimidating, with that raccoon-bear-like makeup he had on. Not a bad intimidation tactic.

“Make one wrong move,” the soldier said, “and I will end you, Smoke Breath.”

The Komodo-rhino grunted.

Janus put up his hands in a surrendering fashion—obviously not a firebending stance. Still, the soldier narrowed his eyes.

Which was a fair response, Janus had to admit. He’d seen his share of false surrenders.

Janus slowly approached, and the soldier shifted Patton to lay on the ground, settling one hand on the handle of a sword.

“I don’t have a lot with me,” Janus admitted. He lowered his hands, ignored the intense scrutiny the move received, and pulled out the med kit he had prepared. He pulled out a roll of bandages and antiseptic. He dabbed the antiseptic on the cut on Patton’s forehead, doing his best to clean it. The entire time he worked, the other soldier’s eyes burned holes through him, deeper than any bender’s fire could.

“My name is Janus,” he offered, not looking up.

“…Virgil,” the soldier said, his tone making it clear that this didn’t make them friends.

…

Patton didn’t stir while the Fire Nation soldier worked.

(Virgil wouldn’t have minded seeing the firebender sent flying by an instinctive rock to the gut, of course. He’d seen more than enough of his comrades cut down by their flames.

Still, they should probably not accidentally kill the closest thing they had to a medic, Virgil figured.)

“We need to get further away from the battle,” Janus said as he wrapped bandages around Patton’s head. “Unless you want to become collateral damage.”

As if to emphasize his point, a boulder crashed down on the opposite hillside, flung who knew how far and reducing the unfortunate tree it landed on to splinters.

“He needs a medic,” Virgil argued, hardly sparing the boulder a glance. He was used to that sort of thing by now. “A proper one.”

“Oh, really? I hadn’t noticed,” Janus said dryly. “How are you planning to get him there? He can’t walk, we’re at the bottom of the mountain, and I’m pretty sure if you were an earthbender, you would have crushed me with a boulder by now. The way I got down here takes us straight to the Fire Nation army, and I’m pretty sure they won’t care how much help you or your friend needed.”

Virgil’s mouth thinned.

“Look. If I was going to kill you, I would have done it by now, wouldn’t I? I’m not here with the army. I left. I’m done killing.”

Virgil narrowed his eyes, searching the soldier. It was hard to look for genuineness in someone whose face was hidden by a _freaking skull mask_.

“I can take you to a medic,” Janus continued. “We’ll take my Komodo-rhino, and get there in a few hours. It’ll take you days on foot. Days your friend might not _have_.”

Virgil shifted, still glaring, but Janus had a point. This area was very sparsely populated, especially with the battlefront threatening to encroach further and further inland. It could be quite a while before they found someone who could help Patton.

It was clear that the firebender knew he had convinced him. That didn’t mean Virgil was going to trust the guy, though.

“Come on. I’ll help you carry him.”

Virgil glared. “I’ve got him.”

“Have you seen your arm?” Janus asked, looking pointedly at where red soaked through green. “You’ll probably drop him.”

Virgil gritted his teeth, shifting his sleeve to hide the injury. It hadn’t affected him too much when he’d been fighting Janus, but by now the adrenaline was wearing off, and the pain was setting in. “ _Fine_. But if you try anything, or give me any reason to think you _might_ try something—”

“Let me guess, you’ll kill me?”

“Oh good, you’re not as stupid as you look.”

Not that Virgil could see anything under his armor, since he still wore his faceplate and he even wore gloves on his hands, but that didn’t matter.

Didn’t he get hot? Virgil wondered. Around fire all the time, with heavy metal armor and apparently even gloves? In _summer?_

Not that he cared, of course. It was probably just more backwards Fire Nation logic.

Each young man took one of Patton’s arms, and they slowly lifted him up to something that resembled standing.

Patton woke up as they moved him, blinking dazed gray eyes. His head lolled as he turned to look at Virgil. Janus twitched. Virgil shifted to help support his neck.

“Group hug?” Patton mumbled. “I love hugs.”

Patton clearly didn’t understand what was going on, because there was no way that he would be so okay with a “group hug” with a firebender.

Virgil tried to look reassuring, but he was pretty sure his smile looked like more of a grimace. He wasn’t sure Patton noticed, either way. His gaze was already drifting away, up towards the burnt leaves fluttering through the air. He watched them with a sort of innocent fascination, like a child watching butterflies.

Virgil and Janus slowly made their way to the stolen Komodo-rhino. Patton tried to help walk, stumbling along between the two opposing soldiers.

Janus hopped up first, making doing so in full armor look way too easily. He and Virgil propped Patton up in the middle of the saddle, between them.

“Well?” Virgil said when they were done, still not quite convinced that this wasn’t a trick. “Let’s go.”

“We have to have a destination first,” the firebender pointed out, pulling out some maps from somewhere within his armor and squinting at them in the dimness. “We’ll find an Earth Kingdom town.”

“Obviously. Your stupid colonies would arrest us. Or you know, just kill us, if they didn’t feel like the hassle.”

“I was thinking more that I didn’t want to be executed for desertion and treason; but sure, that too.”

Virgil scoffed.

“Whazzgoin’ on?” Patton asked, shifting in Virgil’s arms.

“We’re going somewhere safe,” Virgil said.

(“Found it,” said Janus. He put away the map, rolled his shoulders, and flicked his reins. The Komodo-rhino began to move.)

Patton shifted like he was going to try to get away, but failing miserably. “We not safe?” he asked, sounding alarmed.

“No, no,” Virgil quickly corrected before Patton could hurt himself, or accidentally earthbend them all into a crater. “We’re safe. We’re just going somewhere _even safer_.”

“Can’t you hold him still?” Janus said. “If he keeps squirming he’s going to fall off the Komodo-rhino, and that’s the last thing we need.”

“Remind me why we’re still with you again?” Virgil said, glaring at the back of his helmet.

“Good monster,” Patton told the Komodo-rhino. He’d stopped struggling, thankfully.

“It’s _my_ Komodo-rhino. If you want to walk to the nearest non-barbecued town, be my guest.”

“Didn’t you steal this thing?”

Janus declined to comment on that. They continued on for a while, gradually leaving the battle behind.

They made it out of the ravine, thanks to some luckily less steep topography at the very end of the Earth Kingdom side (Virgil was _very_ glad they hadn’t had to backtrack, and Janus had somehow seemed even less eager about the idea).

The sky began to lighten as they plodded along, and after a while, Patton, who had been half-dozing where he lay propped against Janus’s back, turned to look at Virgil. He squinted, looking confused.

Virgil looked back at him, concerned. “Pat?”

Patton blinked, then patted the Komodo-rhino’s back. He looked back at Virgil, staring at him for a long moment.

…

“Are you a spirit?” Patton asked. He wasn’t quite sure where he was, or what was going on. Maybe this spirit had something to do with that.

“What?” asked the spirit. It frowned at him, only making the dark pits of its eyes look even scarier.

Patton swallowed. “Oh please, spirit, let me go,” he asked. He struggled to get off of the monster’s back, only to realize that it was moving. Arms encircled him, keeping him still. He struggled harder. He had to get away, didn’t he? He was so confused, and his head _hurt_ , and he was scared.

“Hold him still,” another voice said.

“Bite me,” said the first spirit.

Patton turned around, confused at the second voice. He blinked hard at the resulting dizziness, and it took him a second to realize that the big metal thing he had been leaning against was _alive_. It turned to look at him, and his eyes widened, because its face… its face was a horrible metal skull, white and streaked with ash and mud but still stark against the pitch black and blood red of the rest of its body. This spirit was even scarier than the first. Patton squeaked, and he stopped struggling. Because he did not want to make these clearly evil spirits angry.

The scary skull spirit sighed and turned back around. Patton was just glad that he couldn’t see that horrible skull face anymore.

They started walking through the trees, the only sounds the low groaning of the Komodo-rhino, the breaking of twigs, and the occasional, strangely reassuring murmurs of the spirit behind him. It probably wanted to keep him calm, so they could more easily do whatever they wanted to do to him.

Patton really didn’t feel well. The motion of the trees as they moved forward, bouncing along on the back of the armored gray monster, was nauseating, and the light filtering through the trees and glinting off of the metal skull spirit was only making his head hurt worse. He closed his eyes and leaned forward onto the spirit in front of him. The cool metal was welcome against his throbbing skull. He could worry about what these spirits wanted with him later.

…

“I can’t believe he threw up on me.”

Virgil leaned back against the Komodo-rhino, holding his injured arm with the other, and watched as the firebender removed his soiled metal chest plate and tossed it away. “You need to ditch your armor, anyway, don’t you? _Kinda_ obviously Fire Nation.”

Janus turned, and Virgil was sure he was being sneered at, even if the guy was still wearing his helmet. “We’re twenty miles away!”

“Boo-hoo.”

There was a grumble from the saddle, and Virgil turned to Patton, who lay against the Komodo-rhino’s back, his face pale and pinched.

“It’s okay,” Virgil murmured.

Patton didn’t respond. Virgil sighed through his nose.

They needed to hurry.

Janus continued stripping off his armor and hiding it in a bush. He kept on the helmet, for some reason, as well as the gloves and gauntlets, and his boots. Otherwise, he wore only the simple, reddish gray clothing that the ash-makers all wore underneath their armor.

“Let’s go,” he said.

“Aren’t you forgetting something?” Virgil said pointedly, tapping his head. He pulled himself up into the saddle and brought Patton up to lean back against his chest.

Janus stared at him for a moment, sighed, and then reluctantly removed his helmet.

Virgil stared.

“Shut up,” said the firebender, getting into the saddle. He flicked the reins, and they started off again.

…

He was in a bed, and it was dark, and there was something warm and soft and slightly itchy laid over him. He heard voices, although they were indistinct, like they were coming from another room.

He turned his head, and _oh_ , that was a mistake.

“Are you awake?” a new voice said. Closer. Higher in pitch than the other two. With a subtle accent that he couldn’t place.

“Hmm,” was all he managed. He was pretty sure that if he tried to speak more, he’d throw up, or crack apart like dried mud, or maybe just dissolve into the earth. At that moment, that last idea didn’t seem so bad, but that didn’t mean he would risk it.

“Can you tell me your name?”

His name.

Did he have a name?

Yes, of course he had a name, he thought. Now if only he could remember what that was.

The answer slowly bubbled up in his mind.

“Pah….” He winced at the scratchiness in his throat, and the way the single syllable made his painful head spin.

“Patton,” the nice voice finished for him, when it was clear he wasn’t going to. “Your friends told me.”

That confused him—confused Patton. If she already knew, why was she asking him?

“Do you remember how you got here?”

He knew this one. Those two scary spirits had brought him, keeping him trapped on the back of a monster. The spirit with the red-black-white skull face and the other with dark pits for eyes.

He shuddered.

“Are you cold?” A hand touched his shoulder. “You don’t feel cold. I hope you’re not running a fever. That’s the last thing you need.”

“Hm?” Why was that? Was something wrong with him? He tried to remember, but remembering hurt, and he didn’t seem to be very good at it.

“You’ll be okay,” the voice assured. She hesitated, then put a hand on his jaw and gently opened his mouth. A few drops of a bitter-tasting substance were placed on his tongue. “Here. You’re going to sleep for a little while,” she said kindly. “You’ll feel better when you wake up.”

Over the next several seconds, Patton’s already considerable sleepiness became overwhelming. He didn’t try to fight it. Just before he drifted off, though, he felt something cool and wet against his forehead, and as his eyelids just barely flickered, he thought he saw the woman’s hands glow blue.

…

When Patton woke, he felt much better. And much worse, for he remembered what had happened, just how he had gotten where he was, and just who had brought him there.

There had been no evil spirits. Just his best friend in the world, and a _firebender_.

It appeared that he was alone in the room now—lying on a cot, covered in a thin wool blanket, in a small room that was bare save for an Earth Kingdom tapestry and a table covered in medical supplies. A stool sat empty beside the bed.

Patton sat up, wincing, and pushed off the blanket with frustratingly clumsy fingers. He swung his legs over the side of the cot, taking a few deep breaths. His head still hurt, but at least he wasn’t so dizzy, and he could think again.

He had to find Virgil before it was too late. They had to get back to the army before they were presumed dead, or worse, deserters and traitors. If they hadn’t been already.

He had to find Virgil before the firebender decided to stop playing nice.

He pushed himself to his feet. Once he was sure he wouldn’t fall, he burst through the curtained door and into the next room. There was a gasp.

“Patton!”

Patton skidded to a halt. He was in what appeared to be the main room of a house. Virgil was there, the makeup around his eyes gone, wearing plain green robes rather than his uniform, his left arm in a sling. His eyes were wide, like he could hardly believe what he was seeing. One of his dual swords, badly damaged, lay on the table in front of him. It looked like he’d been trying to fix it before Patton appeared. He started to get up, staring at Patton.

Beside Virgil was a young man—or perhaps a teenager?—that Patton didn’t recognize. He wore similar green robes to Virgil, but his skin was paler, and he had a burn over part of one side of his face, including one of his eyes.

His other eye, the undamaged one, was gold.

The firebender.

Virgil was just hanging out with a firebender, with no armor on or weapons to protect himself, apparently at ease with that fact.

This didn’t make any sense at all. How hard had Patton hit his head, exactly? He felt dizzy, and he wasn’t sure it was just from the head wound.

“You… what are you…?” Patton stared between them, taking a step back and reaching for the wall for something to lean on. “I….”

Virgil hurried over, taking Patton by the arm. “Come sit down, okay? You’re alright. Everything’s fine.”

Patton allowed himself to be guided into one of the chairs. He kept staring at the firebender, who looked uncomfortable under his gaze.

“This is Janus,” Virgil explained, gesturing at the firebender as he sat back down.

“…Hi,” Patton said.

“Do you remember what happened?” Virgil asked, pushing a bowl of rice and a cup of water over to him. “Your head was messed up pretty bad.”

Patton reached up to feel the clean bandages wrapped carefully around his skull. “I… I remember the battle,” he said uncertainly. “I… I think we fell, and….” He glanced at Janus.

“You got hurt,” Virgil said. “One of the soldiers got through and came at you. Probably because you’re a bender.”

Patton winced.

“You were bending when it happened, and I guess you lost control after you got hit…. We ended up in a ravine. Janus found us there.”

“Right.” Patton looked down at the food in front of him. He picked up the cup of water, thankfully didn’t drop it, and took a sip. He didn’t feel up to eating just yet.

“You couldn’t walk, and he had a Komodo-rhino—he is Fire Nation, but he deserted. He found us while he was running away.”

Patton glanced at Janus again, then back to Virgil. None of this made sense. How was Virgil suddenly friends with a firebender, deserter or not?

“How long have we…?”

“The battle was three days ago,” Virgil said. “I don’t know who won. Or if there really was a winner.”

“We have to go back,” Patton said.

“You have to get better,” Virgil countered. “Soon Jee—that’s the healer who’s been taking care of you—she said you need to rest for a few more days.”

“I can rest on the way, I can rest when we get there—Virgil, we can’t _desert.”_

Virgil looked down at his sword. Janus looked away. “Why not?” he asked quietly. “You hate fighting anyway, and everyone saw us fall off that mountain. I’m sure they’ve already assumed we’re dead.”

“Virgil….”

“We don’t have anything to go back to, anyway,” Virgil said more vehemently. “You know that.”

Patton looked away.

“Patton, I almost lost you—I don’t mean to scare you, but it was really close. Way too close. You and I both know that if we go back, it’s only a matter of time before we die for real. Right now, we have a chance to start over. You and me. And Janus,” he reluctantly added. “Maybe.”

The firebender looked surprised at being included, even as a second thought.

Patton wrung his hands together, his gaze lingering on the bruises along one of his wrists. “Virgil?” he asked, “Why are you friends with a firebender?”

“I never said we were _friends_.”

Patton waited.

Virgil leaned back, looked towards the door, and sighed, apparently accepting he wasn’t escaping this conversation. “He saved you,” he said. “Janus saved your life. Soon Jee said… when we got here, she said you didn’t have a lot of time. That if we’d gotten here even an hour later, you might not have….” His face twisted. “Janus brought us here on his Komodo-rhino, even though we’re Earth Kingdom, and we’re supposed to be killing each other. It would have taken us at least twice as long to get here on foot, and that’s if you could walk. Maybe he just wanted to know he wasn’t going to be killed as soon as he showed up in this town, I don’t really know—”

Janus looked offended at the suggestion. “Hey.”

“—but he still did it. And you’re alive.”

“You could have brought me back to the army,” Patton pointed out quietly.

“Not in time,” Virgil said. “I can’t earthbend us up a mountain. And everyone was still fighting—the medics wouldn’t have even had a chance to look at you. Not until it was too late.”

Patton took another sip of water, mostly just for something to do with himself.

(Had he really been so close to death only a few days ago ? He wasn’t sure he could believe that.)

Still…

“Okay,” Patton said finally. “Well… thank you, Janus.”

Janus inclined his head. “I decided that I was done killing,” he said. “I’ve only been in the army about six months, but it’s… Well, I’m sure you know.”

Patton didn’t feel the need to confirm that. Everyone at the table knew what the Fire Nation had done. What the war was like for everyone involved.

“How old are you, Janus?” he asked instead.

Janus hesitated. “Seventeen.”

“You enlisted at seventeen?” Patton was surprised. Although, admittedly, not _that_ surprised. It was the Fire Nation, after all. They were always seeking honor; and apparently, invading other nations was very honorable.

“Sixteen, actually. And I didn’t enlist. I was drafted, as punishment. I… might have stolen some money from a noble.”

Patton frowned.

“For medicine,” Janus justified. “My mom… she was really sick.”

He looked to the side, gritting his teeth, and Patton caught a better look at the burnt side of his face. His damaged eye was dull, but it was unmistakably _green_.

A long moment passed.

“I didn’t know firebenders could have green eyes,” Patton said.

Janus’s gaze darted towards him. “It’s rare,” he admitted.

“Is that why your face got burned? Because you have a green eye?”

Janus was clearly uncomfortable with this line of questioning. “…Among other things.”

“Sorry,” Patton said, feeling a bit bad for the guy. Soldier or not, firebender or not, he was still a kid who had been shoved into a war he didn’t ask for. And if he had wanted to hurt Patton or Virgil, he had already had plenty of opportunity.

“It’s fine.”

Patton looked him over briefly, then turned to Virgil. He frowned at the sling. “Is your arm okay?”

“I hurt it in the fall,” Virgil said. “It’ll be fine in a couple weeks, Soon Jee said.”

Patton’s heart sank. “I hurt you?”

“A _rock_ hurt me. You didn’t do anything.”

Maybe a rock had technically been what hurt him, but Patton was the one who had been bending it, who had lost control, no matter the reason for it.

Virgil cracked a smile. “Besides, since I’m such a powerful evil spirit, this mere flesh wound is nothing.”

“What?” Patton was baffled.

“You kept calling us spirits the other day,” Janus explained, the corner of his mouth twitching. “You were pretty out of it.”

Patton blinked, then sank down in his chair, feeling his face begin to burn. “Oh.”

He was saved by approaching footsteps, and he looked up to see a woman standing in the doorway, carrying a basket of fruit. She smiled, seeing Patton.

“I’m glad to see you up and around,” she said.

“This is Soon Jee,” Virgil supplied. “The healer. She’s letting us stay until you’re better.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you properly,” Soon Jee said. “How are you feeling?”

“Much better,” Patton said. He bowed, not getting up from the table. He didn’t want to find out if he’d fall over if he tried to bow while standing. “Thank you for helping me.”

“It’s no trouble, dear.” She set down her basket. “Why don’t you come back with me, and we can look you over?”

Patton glanced at his friend, who gave him an encouraging nod. “Okay.”

Soon Jee smiled reassuringly, helped him up, and led him back to the room where he had woken up. Patton sat down on the cot, and Soon Jee took the stool.

“How’s your head feel?” she asked.

“It hurts,” Patton admitted. “But… not like I got hit in the head with a club, anymore.”

“Well, you were wearing a helmet, thankfully,” Soon Jee said. She leaned forward, and started unraveling his bandages. “That helped protect you from the worst of it.”

“Yeah, but….” Patton grimaced. “I was still pretty messed up.” He sat there for a second, swinging his legs awkwardly. “I’m not complaining, but how’d I get better so fast?”

Soon Jee smiled. “I’m good at my job.”

Patton looked at her hands. A memory tickled his mind.

“I saw you, before,” he realized aloud. “Your hands glowed.”

“…I’m afraid you must be mistaken,” she said, wrapping fresh bandages around Patton’s head. “Maybe you were hallucinating. You hit your head quite hard.”

“You’re not just a healer,” Patton said quietly, more sure now. “You’re a waterbender.” He’d heard of that before, of waterbenders who could use their abilities to heal. But he’d never met one.

She looked quickly at the doorway, then back at him. Her eyes were a pale gray-blue, he noticed. “Don’t tell anyone. Please.”

“Why? Don’t people know? Why would you want to keep that a secret?” If Patton had talents like that, he’d be _proud_ , not trying to hide them.

“Because I know what kind of people are in this world. And I know what company you keep. Deserter or not, that boy with you is still Fire Nation. Half, at least.”

Patton frowned, not understanding. “But….”

Soon Jee set her supplies back on the table, looking away for a moment. She seemed to come to a decision, and looked back to Patton. “My real name is Kanda,” she began, “not Soon Jee. And I’m not just a waterbender. I’m a _Southern_ waterbender. One of the last, if not the last.”

She told him about the raids. About how again, and again, and again, the Fire Navy ships had come and taken more and more of their benders away and had sent more and more of their once great cities crumbling into the indifferent ocean.

She told him how she had left, both to save herself and to save her tribe from losing yet another to a fate that was almost surely worse than death.

“So…” she finished. “Do you understand? Will you keep this between us?”

“I understand,” Patton assured her, his heart aching. “I won’t tell anyone.”

Soon Jee—Kanda—gave him a sad smile, and sat back. “Thank you.”

Patton looked down for a moment, then said, “Don’t you miss home?”

“Of course I do. But…” she sighed. “Sometimes the best thing you can do, for yourself, and for the people you love, is to leave. I’d give almost anything to go back; but I know that if the Fire Nation found out about me, my people would suffer.”

Patton nodded. “I understand,” he said softly. He was silent for a moment, then asked, “How did you end up this far north? I know you had to leave, but there’s plenty of places to go further south.”

“I had to get as far away as I could,” she said. “If the Fire Nation heard about me… they would have come, and they would have punished the tribe for keeping me a secret. At least this way, if I’m found, I can claim I’m from the Northern Tribe.”

The Northern Tribe had never been successfully invaded, Patton knew. Kanda doubtlessly knew the same.

“Are you safe here?” he asked. “Maybe you really could go join the Northern Tribe.”

“I could,” Kanda admitted. “But… I’ve heard that things aren’t so easy, for women in that tribe. I’m better off here, where I can help people who need me.” She gestured towards the doorway. “You can go back to your friends now. I do want you to stay here for a couple more days, so I can keep an eye on you. You’ll probably need another healing session.”

“Thank you,” Patton said. He got up, glanced back at her, and went through the doorway.

Virgil perked up immediately when he saw him, getting up from the table and coming over for a hug.

Over Virgil’s shoulder, Patton looked towards Janus, who gave him a hesitant nod of welcome. He looked very out of place.

But he was trying; and, firebender or not, he had brought Patton to the healer who had saved his life.

Patton gave him a small smile.

Virgil pulled back. “Is everything okay? You guys took a while.”

“It’s okay. We were just talking. She wants me to stay a couple more days, just in case.”

Virgil nodded, looking relieved. “Okay. That’s fine. As long as you’re okay.”

Patton nodded, looking between the two of them. “I think we need to figure some things out, anyway.”

Virgil and Janus glanced at each other, and back at him.

“We do,” Virgil agreed.

Patton took a deep breath, and let it out. He sat down at the table, wincing slightly.

“So…” he said. “Let’s just say… we don’t go back. Theoretically.”

Virgil glanced over at the healer, who had come in behind Patton.

“She won’t say anything,” Patton assured him. He turned to look at her. “Right, Soon Jee?”

She smiled, probably relieved that he hadn’t called her Kanda. “I won’t. I’m only here to help people, not to harm them.”

Patton turned back to the two soldiers. “So… let’s just say we don’t go back. What’s our plan?”

“I know what _my_ plan is,” Janus said. “Don’t get caught.”

“Okay. So do we need new names? What’s our story?”

“I’m Earth Kingdom,” Janus said.

“Are people going to buy that?” Virgil asked, glancing at him. “You’re a firebender.”

“I just won’t bend around people. It’s fine. Besides, it’s not really a lie. Just not the whole truth, either. I can go by Lee or something. There’s a million Lees. It’s like the Kuzon of the Earth Kingdom, from what I’ve seen.” He looked pensive. “Maybe we can change it up, make it Dee. I’ve always liked that name.”

Virgil shrugged. “Sure, whatever.”

“We could say we’re refugees,” Patton offered. That way, it would make sense that they didn’t have documentation to back up their story.

“Also not really a lie,” Janus—Dee?—mused.

“This would all be hard to sell if we’re on a Komodo-rhino,” Virgil pointed out.

“Then I’ll get rid of it. It’s in good shape. I’m sure I could get a couple of ostrich-horses for it.”

Virgil tapped his fingers against the blade of his sword. “So, are we actually doing this? Deserting?”

“It’s a little late for me to turn back,” Janus shrugged. “Little late for all of us.”

“But you?” Virgil asked, turning to Patton. “I know you were against this.”

Patton took a deep breath and let it out. “I don’t like fighting,” he said.

And that was that. It was decided.

They weren’t going back.


End file.
